


You're Hot Then You're Cold

by Blooming_Day



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Happy Ending, Humor, Jealousy, M/M, they are both idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28104783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blooming_Day/pseuds/Blooming_Day
Summary: Just because Chanyeol hates his roommate doesn't mean he's not gonna be all hot and bothered if his roommate comes home with a stranger.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 19
Kudos: 170
Collections: Swords and Hearts 2020





	You're Hot Then You're Cold

**Author's Note:**

> **Code:** SAH052  
>  **Prompt:** Chanyeol sees Baekhyun, his loud roommate and enemy, coming home drunk with another person. He gets fired up.  
>  **Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction and none of the characters are owned by Swords and Hearts.**
> 
> **All creative rights and ownership of this particular work of fiction lie with the respective authors.**
> 
> **Author's Note:** Thank you to Mods and Prompter for their role in this journey ^^ I'm quite proud of how this fic turned out and I hope you'll enjoy reading it too!

Baekhyun is late. Again.

Not that Chanyeol cares. He is up at long past midnight, to play video games peacefully in the living room. Making sure that the idiotic midget returned home safely had _nothing_ to do with it. Nope, nothing at all. Not even the slightest bit.

And it's not like this is a new occurrence anyway. Baekhyun was out drinking till late often. It was just uncharacteristically miraculous how Baekhyun's late night drinking parties seemed to coincide with Chanyeol's late night gaming marathons, everytime.

_The mother of all coincidences_ is what Chanyeol calls it, _but a coincidence nonetheless._ Because, no way would Park Chanyeol be staying up, or doing anything for that matter, for Byun Baekhyun.

It's not that Chanyeol has always hated his roommate, though. In fact, he was quite excited when he had first met Baekhyun, considering himself lucky to have hit the jackpot with such a hot roommate who will finally make all his college fantasies come true.

But his perception of Baekhyun soon changed. Baekhyun turned out to be nothing like the cool, charismatic guy Chanyeol had hoped he'd be. Baekhyun is _loud,_ exceptionally so. Chanyeol has lost count of the number of times he has woken up from his naps because of Baekhyun's puppy laughter echoing through their near-campus shared apartment. So can you really blame Chanyeol for despising his stupid giant alarm clock of a roommate? And who even had a puppy laugh? It reminds Chanyeol of his other mortal enemy, his family dog, Toben.

Along with being loud, Baekhyun is also exceptionally _weird._ During the initial days of rooming together, prior to Chanyeol beginning to find Baekhyun's once gorgeous face now particularly displeasing and ugly, Chanyeol had tried to bond with his new and seemingly interesting roommate by cooking for him. Key word; _tried._

He had made his famous _tteokbokki_ recipe and _oi muchim._ Baekhyun had refused to even touch the cucumber salad, making weird faces at it and even though he had eaten the _tteokbokki,_ he kept complaining how it was too spicy and he doesn't like spicy food because whenever he eats them, his eyes get teary and his nose turns red and snot starts coming out. And while on a normal day Chanyeol would have appreciated the cuteness of a red nosed, snotty Baekhyun, his hurt pride from the constant criticism overshadowed everything else. That was _strike one_.

Chanyeol is a firm believer of second chances, though. So he decided to give the _little snotty nosed moist monster_ another chance. He planned a movie night, which Baekhyun immediately brushed off saying that he already had plans. That was _strike two._

But the movie night did end up happening. It takes even more than the innate resistance Byun Baekhyun could offer to be immune to Chanyeol's kicked-puppy face. His big, expressive eyes lose their inherent sparkle and it _might_ be Baekhyun's wild imagination but even his adorable, pointy ears turned downwards. Baekhyun couldn't get rid of the guilt bubbling in his chest for having supposedly kicked a puppy, and so an hour after rejecting Chanyeol's proposal for a movie night and fifty five excruciating minutes of watching Chanyeol mop around, Baekhyun had finally called his friends to cancel their late night rendezvous and agreed to Chanyeol's _whatever it was that he had planned._

And maybe, just _maybe_ Chanyeol had felt a warm, giddy feeling spring in his chest. Not that he'd ever admit it now.

Movie night, however, despite the rather _sweet_ turn of events, had ended up to be a disaster. Chanyeol had picked Dumbo because who wouldn't love the journey of the winsome little animal embracing himself, right? Byun Baekhyun, apparently. The moment he saw the DVD of Dumbo in Chanyeol's hand, his face twisted into a sour expression and a not-so-well-hidden glare was directed towards Chanyeol.

"Is there a problem?" Chanyeol had asked. But Baekhyun had decided to completely ignore his presence and sat down next to him with a huff, mumbling something about school and bullies. Chanyeol had similarly decided to ignore his roommate's constant muttering, happily playing the movie and getting immersed in it. Perhaps, getting _too_ immersed in it.

Anyone who knows Chanyeol well knows that Chanyeol was a _crier._ Give him a mildly emotional scene and the waterworks start with no bounds. He's just _a little sensitive,_ that's all.

So it should come off as no surprise that soon Chanyeol is a sniffing, red nosed mess who's constantly rubbing his eyes, trying to hide his tears.

And Baekhyun next to him sat awfully uncomfortable, unsure of how to deal with a grown up shedding tears at an animated Disney movie. So, he just endured the whole movie with an awkwardly stiff posture and sneaking weirded out glances at his roommate.

And that would have been fine, _if only_ he had not decided to make the statement he did when end credits started rolling.

"I didn't know you were a six footed six year old cry baby. Imagine if we had picked a real movie instead of a silly animated kids feature."

With a nonchalant shrug, Baekhyun had then headed back to his room not pausing for final goodnights.

And that was _strike three._

Insulting Chanyeol _and_ saying animated movies aren't real movies? It was official. Park Chanyeol began feeling a burning rage of hatred for Byun Baekhyun that moment forth.

Though Baekhyun seemed to have caught up to this insatiable grudge that Chanyeol held against him in no time, he simply couldn't care less.

Which infuriated Chanyeol furthermore. Here he was, with a strategically planned schedule of glaring at Baekhyun every three minutes and loudly huffing every five to let the other know that _Chanyeol hated him_ but Baekhyun never behaved even the least bit bothered by it in any way.

"It's not like I care what he does." Chanyeol had said to his friend, Kyungsoo, suddenly in the middle of a discussion regarding whether or not fries should be eaten with hamburgers, one day. Kyungsoo, being well aware of his friend's quirky temperament of dragging Byun Baekhyun into a conversation without any context, had not replied.

"But why does he have to be pretentious? Always flaunting that he's so cool and doesn't get affected by me the way I- Well, he just ignores my presence."

Kyungsoo had silently taken a sip from the can of coke in his hand, his entire attention intentionally focused on his food.

"I just hate being ignored, you know?" Chanyeol had then proceeded to look at Kyungsoo with his huge round eyes pleading for affirmation. Kyungsoo, in return, had wordlessly grabbed some of the fries from Chanyeol's plate since his own had come to an end, _ignoring Chanyeol._

"And he just gets on my nerves." Chanyeol had continued, unfazed by his friend's lack of response. "Especially his smile. It makes me wanna puke. Stupid Baekhyun with stupid perfect teeth and poreless skin."

“You should fuck him.” The suggestion had come from Jongdae, nonchalantly shrugging at a glaring Chanyeol, while settling down in a seat next to his two dear friends.

Chanyeol, who had almost choked on this _preposterous_ suggestion, had attempted his best to kick Jongdae’s shin, which the latter had effortlessly dodged. “What the hell Jongdae! You don’t even know who we are talking about! You can’t just show up out of the blue and say something like that!”

“Well, I saw you making your pouty whiny face and Kyungsoo making his I’m-clearly-not-interested-Jongdae-come-and-save-me face, so I just assumed we’re talking about Baekhyun.” Jongdae had said as he not-so-subtly stole fries from Chanyeol's plate while the latter had just kept staring at him with his mouth slightly open and eyebrows creased together in an intense glare. "And judging by your instantaneously repulsive reaction, I'm gonna assume I'm right." Jongdae had raised a singular eyebrow at Kyungsoo enquiringly to which Kyungsoo had nodded in careless confirmation. 

Chanyeol's mouth hung open for a few countable moments after that until he had spontaneously decided to pull Jongdae's ear making the latter yell out in pain. "How can you even suggest something so… _vile_ , you know how much I hate him!"

While Jongdae passionately tried to save himself from Chanyeol’s merciless hand, Kyungsoo had turned to face Chanyeol, giving him _a look_ , and saying, “It is _because_ we know exactly how much you _hate_ him, Jongdae suggested that.”

“What’s that even supposed to mean?”

Only silence had followed with smug faces while Jongdae nursed his, now crimson, ear.

Chanyeol doesn't know what brought back this particular memory right now. (He thinks about what they meant by that often; not that he's going to admit it.) Perhaps his mind is just wandering off to random insignificant moments of the past because he has been gaming for quite a while now and virtual killing doesn't feel to interest him anymore. Or perhaps he's looking for a distraction because his eyes are heaving and pleading him to close down although he's convinced he's not sleepy yet.

"Where the fuck are you, Byun?" He murmurs under his breath, almost afraid of the possibilities he'll be forced to accept if he said it out loud.

He turns his head to look at the wall clock hanging right behind him, finding that the current time was 2:15 am. A pang of something a lot similar to worry settles in Chanyeol's chest. Byun Baekhyun may be the undefeated champion of _Soju_ drinking competitions and the star singer of the local _noraebang,_ but he was never out as late as 2 in the night.

Chanyeol debates whether or not to call Baekhyun's friends and casually drop Baekhyun's name to enquire his whereabouts but decides against it. For starters, a casual phone call to someone you're not particularly close to at two in the night might not give off the impression Chanyeol would want the general Uni population to have about him. Secondly, there was a good chance that Sehun is currently drunk beyond coherency and Jongin and Yixing are simply in an unhygienic bathroom stall, _fucking._ And Chanyeol would really, really prefer to _not_ hear that.

After another five minutes or so of waiting, Chanyeol finally throws the gaming console away, watching it lightly bounce on the couch. "Fuck it." He groans in frustration, running fingers through his hair. "Where is he?"

He gets up, determined to go out in search of Baekhyun. He gathers his phone and wallet and is about to open the door to step out when it crosses his mind that wearing a jacket would be a wiser decision.

Unfortunately, Chanyeol is rather disorganized, even for a University student. So, finding a jacket seems to be a particularly time consuming and arduous task. And just when he had found his worn-and-torn jacket that needed a serious dry cleaning because the ketchup stains on it looked like bright pastels of crimson, he heard the front door open.

And unexpected relief spread through him. Baekhyun was finally home.

He rushes outside, jacket still in hand, ready to accuse Baekhyun. "Honestly Byun, do you know what time-" He stops mid sentence as he notices _two_ figures struggling at the door, instead of one.

Baekhyun is not alone.

The first thing, the first emotion, that Chanyeol is aware of after he realises that a man brought Baekhyun back home is heaviness. An inexplicable heavy feeling settles in his chest but Chanyeol refuses to acknowledge it.

"Chanyeolll…" Baekhyun slurs out, drunk, and stumbles forward.

Chanyeol is about to catch him out of- what he likes to believe- instinct, and _not_ concern, when the man Baekhyun came home with snakes his hand around Baekhyun's waist, steadying him.

"Careful, Baek."

Baek? _Baek?_ As far as Chanyeol knew, _no one_ was allowed to call Baekhyun that other than his three close friends. So who was this giant lettuce-looking dude who thought he was allowed to call Baekhyun, Baek? And _how dare he_ touch Baekhyun like that?

Chanyeol waited for Baekhyun to protest _as any dignified male should,_ but instead of a protest, a giggle comes out of Baekhyun's mouth. "Your hands are so strong, Sunbae."

Baekhyun's voice sounds sugary sweet under the influence of alcohol and Chanyeol _hates_ it. It is the most annoying sound he has ever heard, he decides. Particularly when accompanied by those nonsensical giggles.

"Yes, they are." The man agrees, flashing his teeth with a laugh. 

_Narcissist._ Chanyeol scoffs. He has strong hands too, but you don't see him putting them around Baekhyun's waist to show off, do you?

"And you're so warm, Sunbae." Another giggle comes, as Baekhyun tries to nuzzle his nose against the man's shoulder. "And so tall. I love tall men."

Being tall is _overrated,_ Chanyeol wants to argue. And though the man was towering almost as high as Chanyeol himself, Chanyeol would still like to believe that he has a superiority of an inch atleast.

But since both his arguments contradict each other, Chanyeol decides to go forth with neither and grumbles in silence.

Baekhyun and the tall-but-annoying dude continue to look at each other, giggly and gooey-eyed until Chanyeol can't take it anymore. He clears his throat loudly, making the two pairs of eyes, who seemed to have forgotten all about his existence _in his apartment,_ turn.

"Baekhyun, you're late." He says, appearing as uncaring as he can possibly conjure.

Baekhyun laughs, hiccuping in between. "Who are you to tell me that, my mom?"

Chanyeol opens his mouth with a comeback but he hears the man snicker. It irks him. Baekhyun can say anything to Chanyeol and Chanyeol is always more than willing to fight back with equally sharp jabs but he doesn't like the idea of Baekhyun doing so in front of a stranger. Their banters are something Chanyeol somehow considers _intimate._

Chanyeol glares at the guy, "I'm sorry, who are you again?"

"I'm-" The guy begins with a smile, that in any other circumstances Chanyeol would have found good natured but currently wants nothing more than to punch it off his face, but Baekhyun interrupts. 

"He's my _Sunbae._ World's best sunbae. My faaaaavourite sunbae."

Chanyeol rolls his eyes, not only at Baekhyun's drunk mumbling but also at the guy's endearing smile while looking at Baekhyun with adoring eyes.

_Ugly people must look at ugly people like that._ Chanyeol comes to a conclusion.

He raises an eyebrow at ugly dude, still waiting for him to introduce himself. The guy, upon realising that, speaks, "Right, hi. I'm Choi Minho." He extends his free arm- other arm _still_ around Baekhyun- to shake hands with Chanyeol.

Chanyeol contemplates for a moment whether or not to be petty and not take his hand, or to be _pettier_ and try to break it. He takes too long staring at the extended arm that Minho has to fake a cough to get his attention again.

"Park Chanyeol." Chanyeol says, as he shakes Minho's hand _a little too firmly._ "I don't think I've seen you around in Uni before."

Meaning; _who the hell are you and why are you still touching Baekhyun?_

"I spent almost my entire free time in the pool." Minho says, shrugging with a laugh that is too charming for Chanyeol to want in their house ( _near Baekhyun_ ).

"The pool?" Chanyeol asks, "Wait, are you the same Minho as the captain of the swim team?"

"The one and only," Minho says, a prideful smile slowly forming on his lips. 

Chanyeol frowns. The swim team was the reason his basketball team was being cut short on funds. The university was constraining their sports budget and thus redistributing their funds, and the swim team seemed to be getting the bigger share of the pie because according to the Dean's words, the swim team was _better_ than the basketball team.

_Another reason to despise Mr. Too-Much-Teeth's existence._

"And the best!" Baekhyun exclaims. "You should see him swim, Chanyeol." Baekhyun stumbles forward, _out of Minho's hold_ , to grab Chanyeol's forearm.

"No, thanks." Chanyeol says, instinctively wanting to hold Baekhyun but restrains himself. "Not a fan of water."

"Boo. Sunbae looks so gooooood in water though, your loss." Baekhyun moves closer to Chanyeol, resting his head on Chanyeol's chest.

Chanyeol stills. Did Baekhyun just-

"You're drunk, Baekhyun." Minho chuckles, shaking his head. "You should sleep."

Baekhyun groans in the fabric of Chanyeol's shirt, wrapping his arms around Chanyeol's neck. A shiver runs down Chanyeol's spine. He has no idea what was happening or how to react.

"He's so clingy when he's drunk, isn't he?" Minho smiles adoringly at Baekhyun.

_Wait… What?!_ Unwanted images Baekhyun and Minho start flashing through Chanyeol's mind and he clenches his fists. He doesn't know why he is so bothered at the unsettling idea of Baekhyun being touched by this man- _any man-_ but he is beyond caring right now. Because in this very moment, all he wants, all he can think is how much he wants Minho out of his house, and preferably, out of Baekhyun's life.

A shifty movement of Baekhyun grabs the attention of both men as Baekhyun suddenly rushes out of Chanyeol's hold and towards their open-kitchen sink to throw up.

Their shared apartment is small, so Chanyeol can easily see Baekhyun's body bending over the sink as he pukes his guts out.

"Shouldn't we, like, go over there and check up on him?" Minho asks, staring at Baekhyun's figure.

Chanyeol steps forward with arms folded, blocking Minho from staring at Baekhyun any longer. "No. He'd prefer to be left alone right now." He says with an air of pride and superiority, satisfied to be able to prove how this never-heard-of-before man doesn't know Baekhyun as well as Chanyeol does.

"You sure?" Minho asks. To Chanyeol's unreasonably high testosterone levels, it sounds like a challenge.

"Yes. I'm his _roommate,_ I'd know." He sharply replies.

Minho raises his hands up defensively, "Okay, whatever you say, Mr. Roommate."

There's silence after that. Chanyeol stares at Minho with a razor sharp gaze making the latter uncomfortable. Minho looks around the apartment to avoid Chanyeol's _glare_ , both of them still standing near the door.

Baekhyun comes back relatively more sober than he was before. With a self-pitying groan, he says, "Sunbae, you should go now. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay, but at what time? I have practice all day." Minho asks with a light frown. Chanyeol rolls his eyes, irritated at the prolonging chit-chat.

"After my classes end. And don't worry Sunbae, I plan to visit you during practice only." Baekhyun smiles mischievously. "No way I'm gonna miss the chance to catch our Uni's best sports team in practice."

_Best sports team?_ Perhaps the alcohol was affecting Baekhyun's head a little too much, Chanyeol thought. Because _clearly_ his basketball team was _better,_ even if the evidence pointed otherwise.

"And yet you won't join us." Minho sighs in over exaggerated exasperation. He turns to Chanyeol and says, "I keep asking him to join the swim team, we could really use a talent like him."

"You already have enough talented swimmers, Sunbae. You don't need me." Baekhyun quickly defends.

"Well, then, join in to increase our cute quotient. No one looks as adorable as you in those little swimming trunks."

If only the world would just normalise punching a man and providing no further explanation to it; then Chanyeol could definitely have thrown a fist at Minho then and there. But instead he focuses on heavy breathing to calm his inexplicable anger.

"Sunbae!" Baekhyun whines, wobbling a little and almost falling down if only Chanyeol had not caught him at the right moment.

"Go to sleep, Baekhyun." Chanyeol commands, uncaring of whether he has any such authority over Baekhyun or not. "You're still drunk. And frankly, it's quite late. I wanna end this mess and go to sleep as well."

"Right, we really should put Baekhyun to bed." Minho says, taking a step forward which only fires Chanyeol up further.

"I can take care of him." He snaps. "And no offense, but, I'm not exactly fond of having strangers loitering in my house."

Meaning; _take full offense and get out of here._

"Right…." Minho trails off. "I should get going then."

"Bye bye Sunbae." Baekhyun shuffles forward to what seems like to hug Minho but Chanyeol holds him back.

"Stand still." Chanyeol's voice is dangerously low. Baekhyun stills.

Sensing the hostile vibes, Minho quickly heads out with a small 'See you later, Baekhyun.' which Baekhyun doesn't reply to because he's too busy staring at Chanyeol with confusion swimming in his eyes.

"What's up with you?" He asks with a pout, still a little wobbly. "Why are you so angry?"

"I don't know Baekhyun. Maybe because you have zero sense of time? Or maybe because you bring weird strangers into our apartment so late? And without permission?" Chanyeol accuses. "I really don't know Baekhyun. But with you, the possibilities seem endless."

Baekhyun stares at Chanyeol, looking astounded at his sudden outburst. "I-I'll just go to bed. I'm sorry if I ruined your night in anyway. It was not my intention." He murmurs quietly with his head held low and slowly shuffles out towards his room.

Chanyeol watches him, aware that his outburst was unfair and his anger was misplaced. With a frustrated groan, he moves towards Baekhyun. "Wait."

Baekhyun turns surprised and curious. Chanyeol wordlessly takes Baekhyun's hand and places it over his shoulder for support. "You're still a little drunk. Let me help."

No words are exchanged after that. They quietly move to Baekhyun's bedroom and Chanyeol slowly helps him settle in his bed. Baekhyun, exhausted and intoxicated, goes into dead-body-mode as soon as he hits the bed.

Chanyeol takes off Baekhyun's shoes and tucks him in bed. With a sigh, he exits Baekhyun's room to get a glass of water and pills for Baekhyun's impending morning headache and quietly places them on a table near Baekhyun's head.

He lingers around Baekhyun's bed after he's done, although he's unsure why. Perhaps his feet feel heavy or some supernatural 2am dark spirit is holding him there but all he does is stand unmoving and stare at Baekhyun's infuriatingly peaceful sleeping face.

_Damn you, Byun Baekhyun._ Chanyeol was enraged. At Minho, for being so tall, and charming, and freaking nice. At himself, for being so affected by things that were supposed to barely be consequential for him. And at Baekhyun, for being so blissfully oblivious of the things he was making Chanyeol feel. 

Shaking his head to himself, Chanyeol leaves Baekhyun's room with a determined heart to take the night and sort out his befuddled feelings.

  
  
  
  


When Baekhyun wakes up the next morning, he regrets every decision that he took which ultimately led him to drinking last night.

Always having been blessed, or cursed, with the memories of everything he does in his drunk state, Baekhyun remembers exactly how last night played out.

He was at the bar, Minho Sunbae and Yunho Sunbae had taken him out for drinks after seeing him dejected all day long.

And when no amount of lame jokes or poorly done professor impressions could cheer him up, the two Sunbaes had decided to proceed with their original plan of an intervention and got Baekhyun to drink _Soju_ till he was buzzed enough to talk about his problems.

Baekhyun told them how he had been pining after his roommate for the past two years, the same roommate who for some unfathomable reason hated his gut. He ranted on about how he even went as far as eating spicy _tteokbokki_ though he clearly cannot tolerate spicy food and watching Dumbo with Chanyeol even when it brought back sour childhood memories of kids at school making fun of his ears and calling him _Dumbo._

Yunho, who had shared classes with both Chanyeol and Baekhyun, nodded in agreement when Minho commented that Chanyeol seemed like a rather oblivious fellow. Yunho then added, "Oh he is, but Baekhyun is pretty much a tsundere with him too."

Vehemently denying the accusation, Baekhyun had protested. "No, I'm not! I'm super nice. I clean his room without him knowing all the time and I wake him up whenever he overnaps and almost misses his assignment deadlines."

"That's sweet of you, Baekhyun." Minho had replied, appreciatively. 

"No, it's not. Tell him Baekhyun, _how_ exactly do you wake Chanyeol up." Yunho's pointed look had made Baekhyun pout.

"I… talk loudly? And laugh aloud sometimes. Till he wakes up." Baekhyun had said aware of exactly how peculiar it may sound to any sane person who was not accustomed to Chanyeol's sting eyes and death glares. "But it's not as bad as it sounds, I promise." After all, they didn't know how desperately Baekhyun wanted nothing more than to just be, if nothing else, Chanyeol's friend. But everyone's favourite Byun Baekhyun was always a nervous mess in front of his supernova-level hot roommate and while trying to appear "cool" often ended up looking rather _indifferent_ and thus, to avoid any future possibilities of making Chanyeol loathe him more than he already does, Baekhyun would prefer to keep his admiration to himself.

"It's exactly as bad as it sounds." Yunho had said while shaking his head in helpless disappointment. "But enough of that. I think we all know you're whipped for Chanyeol, the question is why the sudden blues today?"

And then Baekhyun proceeded to narrate about how he had overheard the girls in his class gossip about Jinsoul planning to ask Chanyeol out on a date and right in the middle of their gossip session, one of the girls had received a text from said Jinsoul that Chanyeol had agreed.

And the idea of Chanyeol dating someone _not him_ had been so strange and foreign to Baekhyun in the past two years that he was not equipped to deal with it's sudden transition to reality. For him, even though Chanyeol was not exactly _his_ , he was more than happy to keep existing with their current relationship of witty quips and intense glares, _that made Chanyeol look so sexy,_ because to Baekhyun, it was all somehow _intimate,_ his own little quirky way of romance. And since, things had gone smoothly, that is, without any girl with giggly friends trying to woo _his man_ and his man _letting_ himself be wooed, Baekhyun had simply assumed them to continue like this till the end of time, or till the day Baekhyun loses his composure and kisses Chanyeol senseless, whichever came first.

But now that Chanyeol is finally going out with someone, he wasn't so sure anymore. And the thought of Chanyeol developing a potential romantic relationship with someone, someone that is _not him_ , had him feeling low all day.

When Baekhyun was finally done narrating the tale of his sad love life, he realised that he had somehow in the process managed to drink two more bottles of _Soju._ The prospect of getting more drunk than he had planned had made him groan, and his Sunbaes had responded to that by pouring him another glass, which Baekhyun gulped down in _one shot,_ obviously.

At some point, when he was way past his drinking threshold, and all the chatter around him had begun blending into a background buzz in his head, Baekhyun had groaned. "Fuck you, Park Chanyeol. Fuck You."

Yunho, who seemed to be uncharacteristically in deep thoughts, had said, "You know, you may not believe me right now, but I think Chanyeol has feelings for you too. He's just not quite aware of them himself."

"Don't try to make me feel better, Sunbae. Tall Yoda _hates_ me. And now he's gonna hate me even more because he's gonna get himself a pretty girlfriend."

"No, I think he's onto something." Minho had piped in. "I mean, I don't know this Chanyeol guy but my gut is telling me there's something there. Let's put it to a little test."

"What kind of test?" Baekhyun had asked, eyebrows creased together and eyes narrowed.

"Drink more. Drink till you're _really_ drunk. And then, let one of us take you home. If he gets jealous then there's your answer. And if he doesn't, well then, Baekhyun you need to start Mission: Getting Over Park Chanyeol."

"This idea is more ridiculous than the time when Jongin wanted to name our interclass project group _'The Avengers'_." Baekhyun had immediately said out loud with a cringing face. "What is this? Some C-Grade teen romcom? Please this stuff never works in real life."

"It is so ridiculous that it could actually work." Yunho had said with an evil smirk slowly forming on his face. "I mean, come on, it's _you_ both. You two are the most loud, overdramatic, perfect-for-each-other pair I've ever met."

"So what? I just pretend to be all giggly and lovey-dovey with one of you and see if it affects Chanyeol's behaviour towards me in any way?"

"Exactly! But maybe not too much. Chanyeol seems pretty dumb but let's not take the risk. Just enough to fire him up." Minho had enthusiastically added.

"Yes, and I think Minho should go. Because Chanyeol already knows me so the effect won't be that hard. And our dear Minho here just happens to be quite the charmer." Yunho had suggested which Baekhyun had begrudgingly, under the influence of alcohol, agreed.

And the rest was history.

Thinking back, Baekhyun wanted nothing more than to bang his head against a wall for agreeing to this stupid plan. If anything, the plan had only managed to make Baekhyun more confused than before.

There was a definite change in Chanyeol's behaviour, alright. But Baekhyun is now convinced that Chanyeol hates him even more than he did before and he doesn't even know how he had managed to make everyone's warm sunshine, Park Chanyeol, even colder to him than he was before.

Another throbbing pulse hits his temples and he groans, looking for water. What he finds is an unexpected surprise in the form of pills for his headache and a glass of water nicely placed at his night table.

A pricking wave of confusion clouds his mind as Baekhyun tries to make sense of Chanyeol's feelings towards him. The warm gesture stoutly contradicts his ice cold tone from last night.

Unable to bear the excruciating torture of _the perplexities of Park Chanyeol's actions,_ he decides to put his agony to a rest and simply man up and clarify everything with Chanyeol.

So, with sleepy eyes and morning bed hair, Baekhyun makes his way to Chanyeol's room wearing his pink plush slippers that he knows Chanyeol has a soft spot for (he has seen Chanyeol eyeing them way too many times. He even bought a set on Chanyeol's size but never quite managed the courage to give it to him).

Upon reaching Chanyeol's room, he knocks and waits patiently for a come in or for Chanyeol to open the door himself, but neither of the two expected actions occur. So Baekhyun slowly opens the door to pry himself in. "Chanyeol?" He calls out loud to announce his presence. But inside, he finds the room empty and _unusually clean._

A pit settles in his stomach. Last time Chanyeol cleaned his room was when his basketball team had lost the finals of a very important tournament and he couldn't sleep at night. And after a thorough search of the whole apartment, Baekhyun figures out that Chanyeol must have left early for classes. Checking his watch, he confirms that Chanyeol's classes don't start in atleast an hour and a half and he's positive that Chanyeol has no assignments with approaching deadlines that he needs to urgently attend to.

Baekhyun can come to only one conclusion: _Chanyeol is avoiding him_.

  
  
  
  


Jinsoul is pretty. And her laugh really reminds him of his sister, Yoora. She was a very fun and interesting person to talk to as well. So overall, Jinsoul really is a girl anyone would be lucky to go on a date with.

And yet, all Chanyeol could think of, while sitting in this small but cozy cafe on a day with a perfect weather to do something romantic, was how much he wanted nothing more than to just go home and get a glimpse of Baekhyun's face that he had been dying to see for the past five days.

"Jinsoul?" Chanyeol suddenly says, interrupting Jinsoul who was musing about how much she loves taking long walks in the spring. "I think we should end this date here."

Jinsoul looks at him with a sad smile. "Let me guess, it's not because you don't like long walks in the park?"

"No, sorry." Chanyeol smiles back, shaking his head. "I just thought it would have been nice to try dating atleast once in Uni life. But clearly, it's just not for me."

"Or, I'm not the person for you." Jinsoul quips.

"Oh no, you're great." Chanyeol immediately protests. "It's just that, I don't think I want to casually date anyone at the moment. I'm sorry I should have figured it out before saying yes to you." Chanyeol says, thinking about all the other things he should have figured out earlier than he did.

"It's totally cool, Chanyeol." Jinsoul reassures him. "I always knew it was a long shot with you anyway."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean I had a sneaky suspicion that your heart was already somewhere else. And seeing you today, it's just so obvious now."

Did _everyone_ know, all this time? Everyone except Chanyeol, that is. Chanyeol wants to groan out loud and slap his own face but resists the urge to do so as, despite this date not exactly ending how it was supposed to, Chanyeol would like to keep amiable relations with Jinsoul. And acting like a halfwitted buffoon might not be the best way to do so.

"Right…" He says, scratching his nape. "I should get going then." Chanyeol gets up and Jinsoul nods in acknowledgement.

Chanyeol steps out of the cafe with thoughts of Baekhyun filling his head. That night, Chanyeol had returned to his room with his mind more messy than his room. And it _irked_ him. To distract himself and _hopefully_ compartmentalise his thoughts, Chanyeol had decided to do the one thing he never thought he'd do even in his wildest dreams, especially not because of Byun Baekhyun; Chanyeol cleans his room.

But even after an intense cleaning session of eradicating even the minutest speck of dust found in his dump swamp of a room, Chanyeol's mind didn't gain even the vaguest bit of clarity. The world is _unfair_ to him, Chanyeol had then decided. Wasn't cleaning the room somehow magically supposed help the chaos in his mind calm down? Or were all books and movies just simply a big scam to get Chanyeol to do the one thing he had made his life's mission to procrastinate? Alteast the last (and only) time, he had attempted to clean his room, he had ended up falling asleep and taking his mind off the dejection of losing. But that night, his brain was screaming louder than fans at a kpop concert and sleep seemed rarer than a black diamond.

At the end he had ended up calling Kyungsoo, who had miraculously picked up his call even at such an odd hour. "If you're not dying right now, I'm gonna hang up." Was the first thing Kyungsoo had said.

"Soo, I really need your help." Chanyeol had replied, in an almost childlike whining tone.

"What is it? Are you hurt?" Chanyeol had felt Kyungsoo slowly wake up as his voice slowly got more and more concerned.

"No, not exactly. It's about Baekhyun. Today, he brought-"

"Oh my god, Chanyeol! It's four in the morning for God's sake. I really don't know what happened with Baekhyun this time and I don't care either."

"No, Soo. You don't understand. It's serious this time. I'm so confused about my fee-"

"Chanyeol, when I said I don't care, I meant I am really not interested in knowing about your love life issues _at four in the morning._ So, no. I don't wanna know what you're confused about."

"But Soo I need your help to figu-"

"You know what, Chanyeol? It's been _two freaking years_ and I guess if you haven't figured out _shit_ on your own yet, you never will. Guess what? You're _in love_ with Baekhyun. I'm pretty sure that solved all your problems right? Now, _good night!_ "

With that, Kyungsoo had cut the call. He had just casually made a statement as bold as Chanyeol being in love with Byun Baekhyun while berating him and _had cut the damn call._

Chanyeol wanted to hit his own head with a Baekhyun sized hammer. How could Kyungsoo even assume something as ridiculous as that? Just because he was a little confused about why he was so bothered about Minho doesn't mean he was _in love_ with Baekhyun. He just didn't like to see anyone else with Baekhyun. And just he wanted Baekhyun to look at him. And he wanted to talk about Baekhyun to everyone. And he-

_Shit._

Maybe he was in love with Byun Baekhyun, after all.

And the very thought was so foreign and so scary that Chanyeol had immediately decided to google ' _What to do if the person you love hates you?'_

After a thorough reading, Chanyeol had come to a single, tragic conclusion: he was doomed.

And thus, as immaturely as he ran from his feelings for years, Chanyeol chose to avoid Baekhyun.

But that changes now. Today, he'll go back home and wait for Baekhyun to come back from his classes. And when he does, Chanyeol will confess to him, even if it results in Baekhyun hitting him with one of his plush slippers (Chanyeol is _in love_ with them).

Deep in his thoughts, he does not notice the tall figure approaching his way until he bumps into said tall figure.

Looking up, Chanyeol sees the one person who is even lower than the Dean of his University in his _People I want to bump into right now_ list. And Chanyeol _despises_ their Dean from the core of his heart.

"What a surprise bumping into you here." Minho smiles, cheerfully. Chanyeol hates it.

"There's only one decent cafe near Uni, so not that big of a surprise really." The attempts to conceal the passive aggression in his voice are so clumsy that Chanyeol wonders why Minho doesn't take immediate offence and just leave. But instead, Minho chuckles in amusement.

"You don't seem to be in the mood of a chit-chat. So, I won't be taking up your time." Minho says, waving him away.

A part of Chanyeol wanted to stay there just to prove Minho wrong but he knew he prioritized going home over his petty needs. "Yeah, see you later." _Hopefully never._

"Oh, and Chanyeol?"

Chanyeol stops on his tracks again. _What now?_ He turns and asks, "Yes?"

"I have a girlfriend, whom I love very much. I'm not interested in hitting on anyone else. Just wanted you to know that."

Oh.

_Oh._

Chanyeol _needs_ to find Baekhyun and talk to him, _right now._

When Chanyeol gets home, he checks his watch to see there's still fifteen minutes left for Baekhyun's class to end. Relieved that he still has ample time to prep himself for his impending nerve-wrecking conversation, Chanyeol opens the door.

What he is greeted with are soft whimpering noises. Curious and cautious, Chanyeol tiptoes towards the source of the sound. Upon realising that the whimpers are coming from Baekhyun's room, Chanyeol stops. Why is Baekhyun here and not in class? And more importantly, why is he crying?

Chanyeol contemplates whether to leave Baekhyun alone or not, giving him the privacy he needs. But the thought of Baekhyun being alone and sad and _desperately in need of a hug_ overtakes all his senses and he finds himself barging into Baekhyun's room.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

Baekhyun looks up, eyes puffy and wet. Baekhyun sniffs upon seeing Chanyeol and all Chanyeol can think about is _how adorable his little red nose looks._

"You!" Baekhyun screams in accusation. "What are you doing here? Go away!"

"I should be asking you that, don't you have classes?" Chanyeol asks, primarily as an attempt to throw off Baekhyun's razor sharp gaze but also because his need-to-know urges were killing him.

"Why do you care? Don't you have _a date_ to be at right now?" Baekhyun glares at him, wiping his tears ferociously. 

"My date…. isn't important right now. Why are you crying?" Chanyeol carefully takes a step forward, afraid that too much movement could set Baekhyun off like a bomb.

"Why am I crying? _Why am I crying?!_ Well, you have a lot of guts asking me that when you're the reason behind it, you _daft donkey._ "

A sharp remark reaches the tip of Chanyeol's tongue out of instinct from two long years of supposed hatred but Chanyeol holds it back. Instead he ponders over the dreadful idea of him causing Baekhyun's tears.

"I-I am the reason?" Chanyeol asks in a small voice, hoping to gain some sympathy from the _little ball of blazing fire_.

"Yes, you! You're so dumb, I swear to God." Baekhyun sniffs a couple of more times. "Actually, I don't know if you're really dumb or just painfully sadistic. I _hate_ you either way!" Chanyeol feels like someone punched him in the gut. "And stop making that face for God's sake."

"What face?"

"That kicked puppy face with those big stupid eyes of your's." Baekhyun groans. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"Baekhyun-"

"I was fine with you hating me but now you're going out on dates with someone else and I'm supposed to just sit here and pretend that it doesn't affect me at all? Are my feelings a joke to you Chanyeol?"

_Wait, what?!_ Baekhyun had feeling for hi-

"Why can't it be me, Chanyeol? Why? Why? I know you like guys, so don't even try to give that excuse. I've seen you jerk off to gay porn way too many times."

Quick scarlet creeps up on Chanyeol's cheeks.

"So why? I know I'm attractive. I've seen you check out my ass a few times too."

Chanyeol wants to hide. And hopefully die.

"So _what is it?!_ Clearly, I'm in love with you for two goddamn years but you, you just loathe me, don't you, Sir?"

Chanyeol stares at him blankly. Baekhyun was in love with him? For _two years?_ How is that even possible when all this time Baekhyun was as indifferent to him as a caterpillar is to a coconut.

"And now, _thanks to you,_ I'm skipping classes and crying in my room like a lovesick teenager. All because you went out _on a date!_ "

"Baekhyun, I love you." Chanyeol blurs out. He expects things to proceed in a cliche way after this; for Baekhyun to stare blankly at him for a while and then slowly move towards him. Wordlessly, Baekhyun will then take Chanyeol's face in his beautiful, slender fingers and kiss him like a dream come true. But instead-

"What?!" Baekhyun snaps. "What did you just say?"

"I-I love you. I'm sorry for realizing it so late." Chanyeol says, his voice trembling with nervousness.

"You _love me? You_ love me? After being so mean to me for so long, suddenly out of the blue, you love me?" Baekhyun throws questions at Chanyeol like darts. "What is this, pity? Oh look he's crying so let me be the hero and give him some consolation? You were so cold to me just that night and then avoided me for days and now you love me?"

There's a momentary silence and Chanyeol wonders if Baekhyun is planning to pounce at Chanyeol and attack him. And judging Baekhyun's current expression, he might just be about to do so. To avoid what was supposed to be a romantic situation turning violent, Chanyeol speaks up.

"I'm sorry, Baekhyun. I was just… really jealous, I think."

" _You think?_ God, Chanyeol why are you like this? And why do I still like you?" Baekhyun massages his temples. "And didn't I tell you to _stop looking at me like that?_ I literally cannot focus when you're being so cute."

Chanyeol scratches his nape. "I'm sorry." He repeats while smiling sheepishly. "It took me too long to figure out that all my frustration towards you was just me projecting my feelings in the wrong direction."

"Sunbae was right." Baekhyun sighs. "You're an idiot." After a small pause, he continues. "But you're my idiot now, I guess."

And Baekhyun did pouce at him after that, but instead of attacking him, to kiss him in a way that was even better than every fantasy Chanyeol had ever had.


End file.
